An Anthology of Irish Verse - Hardcover

Colum, Padraic. An Anthology of Irish Verse: From Ancient Minstrels' Songs to Poems of the Modern Masters. Edited with an Introduction by Padraic Colum. New York, Kilkenny Press, 1986. 16 cm x 23,5 cm. XIV, 429 pages. Original Hardcover with illustrated dustjacket in protective Mylar. Excellent condition with only minor signs of wear. Includes for example: The House, The Road, The Field, The Fair and The Fireside / Street Songs and Countryside Songs / The Celtic World and the Realm of Faery / Poems of Place and Poems of Exile / Satires and Laments / Our Heritage / Personal Poems / Poems Since 1920 etc. Poet and folklorist Padraic Colum, a leading figure in the twentieth-century revival of Irish culture, intended this classic anthology to represent, above all, the Irish people. From songs by anonymous minstrels of the distant past to the work of modern masters such as William Butler Yeats, Colum's selections express national themes: the Celtic world and the realm of the faery; poems of place and of exile; and proud songs and bitter laments for Ireland's stirring and sometimes tragic past. Colum's masterly introduction explains the rise of this unique literature. When the legendary Milesian Celts, ancestors of today's Irish, prepared to invade the Emerald Isle, their first poet, Amergin, pronounced an invocation dedicating the Milesian race to the mysterious country. Irish poetry thus began with a commitment of the people to the land. Ireland really has two literatures: one in Gaelic, cultivated since the eighth century, and the other in English - or Anglo-Irish - that began in the eighteenth century. A distinctive Gaelic rhythm, owed to the traditional music and song of Ireland, appears in the earliest Anglo-Irish poems, however, and continues to enrich contemporary verse. (Front dustjacket flap)